Oh, the siren call
of seedy hotels – the ones you look at and
say, “Boy, a lot of shit has gone down here.”
Hotels like the Gramercy Park Hotel before it was
Shragerized or Galveston’s Hotel Galvez before
it was Wyndhamed – these hotels told stories
that seeped into your pores and made your skin crawl.
Think about the wallpaper- peeling Hotel Earle in
the Coen Brothers 1992 classic film, Barton
Fink. That hotel had a bigger role in the film
than the film's stars, John Turturro and John Goodman.

And at the top of
anyone’s list of sexily-seedy hotels is New
York’s un-renovated, art-filled Chelsea Hotel.
Built in 1883, the hotel has been home to many famous
names in the art, literature, music and film worlds.
Andy Warhol, Tennessee Williams, O’Henry,
Sarah Bernhardt and Dylan Thomas have all called
the Chelsea home. Dylan Thomas famously died in
his hotel room of New York Artist’s disease
(commonly known as alcoholism). And Sid Vicious
of the Sex Pistols may have knifed his girlfriend
(Nancy Spungeon) to death in his hotel room. Nancy
definitely died of stab wounds, but there is still
conjecture about what actually happened - some of
the scuttlebutt being that Nancy asked him to kill
her. This little incident was the subject of the
1986 film, Sid and Nancy.

Photographer Linda
Troeller has lived at the Chelsea Hotel since 1992
where she befriended many of artistic souls who
presently populate the hotel’s rosters. And
she has taken their photos and asked them to write
letters to the hotel about what the hotel mean to
them for her new book, Chelsea Hotel Atmosphere
- An Artist's Memoir. Many of the letters in
the book speak fondly of the now ousted manager,
Stanley Bard, who they credit with making the Chelsea
their home. But all the letters and photographs
tell a tale of creation and depict the wondrous
art haven that is the Chelsea Hotel.

Linda held a showing
of her prints and a book signing on September 26,
2007. The photographs had been blown up to large
poster size and were displayed both on the walls
of room 914 and in the hallway outside. Many of
Linda’s friends were present as were representatives
of the New York Times, the Daily News and BBC. The
party was a glimpse into a time capsule, a visit
to an old bohemia that is fast being erased in our
collective march to an updated future.

The famous
(and infamous) Chelsea Hotel is located at 222 West
23rd Street in New York City. For more information
about the Chelsea Hotel, log onto: hotelchelsea.com,
hotelchelseablog.com
(yes, the residents have their own blog) and wikipedia.org.
Chelsea Hotel Atmosphere - An Artist's Memoir
is available at www.blurb.com.
For more information about Linda Troeller's beautiful
and evocative photos, log onto: www.lindatroeller.com.